Community Engagement through Wipro Cares

Wipro’s community care initiatives are channeled through Wipro Cares, our not-for-profit trust, which engages with our proximate communities on the domains of primary health care, education for the underprivileged, education for children with disability, environment and disaster rehabilitation.

The Wipro Cares funding model comprises employee contributions which are matched by Wipro. The Wipro Cares model is a great example of where employees play a key role both in terms of volunteering and monetary contribution. Nearly one in three employees or more than 50,000 Wipro employees are contributors to Wipro Cares, making this possibly the largest such initiative in India and one of the largest in the world. During 2015-16, nearly 8000 employees from 25 chapters collectively spent more than 14400 hours in voluntary engagement on a wide range of social initiatives. Involved and engaged employees add great value to our programs. Volunteering also enhances their own sense of larger purpose and alignment with the company’s values.

Inputs and Program Outcomes

regular engagement through meetings, field visits and planning and review at important stages

The below section lays out some of the key outputs and outcomes this year at a domain level.

Wipro Cares works in the following domains:

Primary health care: Access to primary health care is a key determinant of an individual’s future trajectory in life, including the ability to engage in productive livelihoods and responsible citizenship. Wipro Cares works with partners who oversee the delivery of good quality primary health care services to underserved communities across Nagaland and Maharashtra. The North-East is relatively underserved in terms of development and therefore, it was realized as imperative to start engaging in the region. Our work in Nagaland is in remote, inaccessible villages where availability of primary health care services has been weak or non-existent till now. Similarly, the work that we support in Maharashtra is in the remote tribal district of Gadchiroli. In both instances, the primary goals are to build the capacity of the local community in managing their health needs, to augment government infrastructure and to train health workers to address the unique needs of the communities.

Output

Outcome

Established new partnership in Nagaland to provide primary health care services and continued support to existing partner in Maharashtra

Around thirty thousand people across 59 villages with access to affordable primary health care services

An empowered population with increased capacity to handle own primary health care needs and demanding for their health rights

Education for underprivileged children: Wipro Cares complements Wipro’s other initiatives in education by supporting in a more direct way, access to educational opportunities for underprivileged children from marginalized communities. Our work focuses not only on getting children enrolled in schools but also enabling retention and better learning outcomes through remedial education. Through our partnerships, we also aim to provide counselling services for children and parents, support nutrition and healthcare needs of the children, develop vocational skills among adolescents, and facilitate holistic development of all children.

Output

Outcome

Established partnership in new geographies through five new partnerships and continued support to existing partners, thereby reaching out to seven states across the country through sixteen projects

More than 65000 children belonging to underprivileged communities in cities across India with access to formal or non-formal education

Demand for education instilled in families of first generation learners from communities like migrant labor, urban slum children, orphan/institutionalized children

Education for children with disability: Started in 2014, an important initiative in Wipro Cares was on early childhood care and education for children with disability. This has scaled in size and scope significantly. Education for such disadvantaged sections is never about just schooling. It is linked to a whole host of other enabling factors like availability of nutrition, community support, specially trained teachers, assistive devices, access to healthcare etc. Our approach tries to integrate these dimensions to the extent possible. Our work in this space covers multiple categories of disability and focuses on early intervention and inclusive education.

Output

Outcome

Established partnership in new geographies through one new partnership in the National Capital region and continued support to existing partners, thereby reaching out to six states through twelve projects

Educational and rehabilitative needs of 2500 underprivileged children with disabilities from socio-economically underprivileged backgrounds

Early mainstreaming promoted through early intervention and inclusive education

Increased awareness of disability among underprivileged communities

Enhanced ability of families to manage the needs of children with disability

Environment: Effective management of urban solid waste continues to be a high priority challenge for our cities. While the use of right technology, good governance and the active participation of civil society are important determinants of success, the work of the informal sector is often unrecognized. In this regard, Wipro Cares continues to strengthen a project that we had initiated in 2014-15 which focuses on providing skill development to workers in the informal sector in Bangalore’s waste management space by which they are enabled in converting wet waste into compost and recycling / reuse of dry waste.

Output

Outcome

Continuation of project and partnership working towards welfare of waste pickers

2000 waste pickers benefitted with access to social and health security measures

Disaster rehabilitation: In the event of natural disasters, the disadvantaged communities get affected the most as the already fragile basis of their livelihoods gets further disrupted. Starting with the Gujarat earthquake in 2001, Wipro Cares has responded to several natural calamities wherein Wipro’s employees have also risen to the occasion and played a sterling role. By design, we focus on the more difficult challenge of long term rehabilitation of the affected communities. However, there are exceptions like the December floods in Chennai when we have also supported immediate relief measures.

Output

Outcome

Established one new to work towards relief of flood victims in Tamil Nadu and continued support of partner organization in Uttarkashi.

95% of collected solid waste, including e-waste, processed or disposed safely Farmers’ cooperative set up in Uttarkashi to facilitate market linkages